Harlan Yu

Harlan Yu is the Executive Director of Upturn. Based in Washington D.C., Upturn works at the intersection of social justice and technology, to ensure that new technology reflects the interests and needs of those at the margins. Recently, Harlan has focused on the impact of emerging technologies in policing and criminal justice, such as body-worn cameras, and in particular their disproportionate effects on communities of color.

Harlan has extensive experience working at the intersection of technology and policy. He has previously worked at Google in both engineering and public policy roles, as a technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and at the U.S. Department of Labor. Prior to founding Upturn, his research and projects focused on open government, consumer privacy, and electronic voting.

Harlan holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Princeton University, and a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley.

Last month, the city of St. Louis unanimously opted to accept a year of free body-worn cameras from Axon, formerly known as TASER and the nation’s largest camera vendor. While some members of the community, including the families of those who have been killed by the police, have pushed the city to adopt body-worn cameras, cameras alone can’t fix the accountability problems that have plagued police departments both locally and across the country.

Last summer, the NYPD asked New Yorkers what rules should apply to the body-worn cameras that police will soon begin wearing. The response was overwhelming: More than 25,000 people responded to the department’s survey. The community asked for policies that would make the camera program more transparent, so that the footage can make cops more accountable to the people.

Last week, the NYPD announced its new body-worn camera policy. Turns out, the NYPD isn’t actually that interested in what the public thinks.

"“They got six red and two yellows and no greens, so I think hopefully this scorecard helps community advocates in Phoenix identify areas where the department policies could improve,” said Harlan Yu, a principal technologist at Upturn, the consulting firm that helped create the report.

"Harlan Yu, a principal at Upturn, said the discussion of when an officer should turn on a body camera is extremely important after O’Neal’s death.

“Looking at Chicago’s policies, or at least the policies itself, it fully satisfied our criteria,” Yu said. “Presumably, in that situation, the officer was required to have the camera on. Obviously, the question is whether an officer violates that policy, what procedures are in place and what does the department do in those cases. I think that remains to be seen.”"

""By allowing pre-report viewing, statements from officers will always appear more accurate and more credible than other witnesses statements, which would unnecessarily tilt the justice system even further against criminal defendants," said Harlan Yu, a principal with technology consulting firm Upturn, which last yearcollaborated on a camera policy "scorecard" compiled by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which represents more than 200 national organizations.